With a large majority of businesses now accepting credit cards, you must distinguish yourself by offering secure payments for your customers. Credit cards are more than a means of payment, they are tools that can be used to build or destroy credit. As a business owner, it is your duty to protect your client’s credit information.
For this reason, you need to get a company/processor that offers a secure payment gateway that will verify all information while keeping it safe. While information theft may not be a problem in a physical store, it is quite prevalent online. If you choose to have an online store, encrypt it so that all the information is deleted once the transaction is complete.
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 28th, 2011. Comment. 
If you’ve been keeping abreast about small business news and tips, you probably know that accepting credit card payments is a great way to maximize profit. What you may not know is that you do not have to buy a bulky processing machine or even have a physical or online shop.
Although not very popular (yet), mobile payment solutions are a great way to accept credit cards with the use of your phone. If you decide to go this route, you need to do some research.
There are many providers of this service. Their startup fees and provided services all differ and in a future post we will have an in depth analysis.
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 27th, 2011. Comment.
With credit cards becoming the primary means of paying for transaction, many business owners are investing in credit card processing. However, there are a few merchants who have not invested in it, believing that it will not help them. This blog will explain a few benefits of credit card processing.
1. Sales – Statistics show that sales increase by 75% with credit cards processing implementation.
2. Real-time – Credit cards allow instant payment and faster access to profit.
3. Effective – By accepting credit cards, merchants can take payments from in-store, online, and phone customers in a short period of time.
4. Expansion – credit card processing allows businesses to expand on a global scale by giving them the capacity to accept payments from any country through online stores.
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 24th, 2011. Comment.
There are many business owners who pay excessively for credit card processing due to errors on their part. Fortunately, resolving these problems and paying a reasonable fee can be achieved by using the following guidelines.
1.Understand the various fees being charged. If you are confused, ask questions to ensure that you know what you are being charged.
2.Read your statement each month to stay updated on policy changes.If you do not understand your statement, call your processor and ask for a detailed explanation.
3.Comparison shop as often as possible and let your provider know. This will make them vie for your business through discounts and incentives.
4.Ask about different requirements needed to prevent a downgrade. If you do not ask, you may never find out.
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 23rd, 2011. Comment.
In today’s world, it is important that you accept credit card payments to maximize your business potential and keep transactions fast and easy. For those of you who are skeptical, consider these points.
1. Studies have proven that businesses can triple their profit when they accept credit cards.
2. Due to the fact that card transactions are electronic, you will have immediate access to the money from sales.
3. To truly expand, your clients should have access to an online store. This store will only work if you can accept credit cards (not everyone has a paypal or wants to create an account).
4. People who use credit cards are more impulsive than people who pay with cash, and this is beneficial for you business.
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 21st, 2011. Comment.
When offering credit card processing services, it is essential that you provide some basic features to ensure customer satisfaction.
- Debit Cards Acceptance – it is preferable to acquire terminals that allow your business to accept debit cards in addition to credit cards to ensure that you do not alienate potential clients.
- PIN number – all debit transactions require entry of a PIN and it is important to provide a secure means of entering this information to give your customers a feeling of safety.
- Gift Cards – while this feature is negligible, it may be beneficial to accept gift cards.
- Phones – to truly expand your business, you need to appeal to phone customers by acquiring a terminal that allows clients to pay through their phones.
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 20th, 2011. Comment.
Regardless of your business type, you will eventually have to choose the type of payment solution that matches your business goals and optimizes profit. There are various types of payment solutions (retail, mobile, online, phone, etc) and a host of companies offering these services. Listed below are some of the things you should look for when comparing companies.
- The type of payments you receive
- Processing payments
- Payment gateway requirement (any serious business will have this)
- How compatible the gateway is with your shopping cart
- Cost of their service
- Types of payment plan
- Guaranteed security
- Recovery plan in case of a disaster
- Payment reporting plan
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 19th, 2011. Comment.
Payment processing is carried out by processor companies. These companies are divided into two groups: back-end and front-end.
Front-end processing companies are connected to card associations and give permission and settlement to merchant banks. Back-end processing companies take payments from front-end companies and transfer money from issuing banks to merchant accounts.
In a matter of seconds, the payment processing company verifies the credibility of the payment and sends the information to the merchant. The transaction is verified, the merchant can proceed with the sale. If the transaction is not verified by the processing company, the merchant will decline the transaction.
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 18th, 2011. Comment.
This blog will briefly describe the two components of base credit card processing fees: interchange and assessment.
Interchange
The interchange fees is the biggest portion of credit card processing fees and is paid to an issuing bank. The processing and brand company (visa, etc) do not get any part of this fee. Interchange fee is determined by various things: your type of business, payment method, etc.
Assessments
This fee is levied by the credit card company (Discover, Visa, etc) whenever a transaction involves any of their cards. The fee is fixed and no company can give you a better or worse deal. It is possible to get a different charge if you choose a bundled price model because of the control it gives brand name companies.
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 16th, 2011. Comment.
Despite popular belief, credit card processing fees are not difficult to understand. It is imperative that you understand all the fees and know why you are being charged. It is not uncommon to hear talk of negotiable fees. While these fees exist, it is important to note that you cannot negotiate all the fees.
The biggest fee for processing credit card transactions is called the discount rate. It is the retail cost of processing credit cards and includes base costs and markups. Base costs usually make up 75% of the fees while markups make up about 25%. Keep in mind that these percentages are estimates and actually values may be slightly higher or lower.
Filed under Credit Card Processing by on Aug 14th, 2011. Comment.